How the Hell Does the Train Work?

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Maglev is short for magnetic levitation. So magnets levitate the train just a little bit, and then another set of magnets pull it forward. The first commercial maglev train debuted in shanghai on new year's day. A lot of folks are working make elon musks hyper loop fever dreams, a reality. Now, this would be passenger pods that speed at like 700 miles per hour in a vacuum chamber tube propelled by maglev.

Trains. Locomotives. Choochoos. Bullet trains. Hyperloops. Subways. How fast can they go? How did they change American history? Why do people love them? What should we do with all that abandoned track? Can you marry a train? What's it like to shovel coal into a steam engine?

Alie went off the rails at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan talking to an official ferroequinologist and curator Matt Anderson -- who confessed to some youthful railroad mischief, delivered a succinct slice of U.S. History, has train movie recommendations and discussed cars vs. trains in the great transportation debate. Also, why transporting isn't always about the trains.

The Henry Ford Museum Railroad Exhibit

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Sound editing by Jarrett Sleeper

Theme song by Nick Thorburn